evangelism style

The tourists were enjoying their visit to New York city until they got scared witless.

They are friends of mine and told me this story.

They’ve seen

way too many New York movies,

watched too many New York cop shows, and

viewed too many crime dramas based in New York.

Coming to the big city from small town America, they had some preconceptions of being vigilant against petty crime, being mugged, and stuff like that.

They were enjoying their time in the big city. One Saturday, they decided to use the subway to get to their destination.

One of them had used the Subway before. They were somewhat familiar with the process, the routine and the interesting characters in the system. Once, a homeless man warned him of the “Twinkie conspiracy.”

The four tourists got onto the subway car. Being Saturday morning, there were only 3-4 other people in the car with them.

Then it got scary.

At the last minute, a pack of 6 intimidating looking men got on board. Just looking that them got the tourists a little nervous. One instinctively drew their purse quickly under their arm and snuggled in tighter to her friend. Fear (along with preconceptions of being harmed in a subway) began to produce flight or fight adrenaline rushes.

The doors closed.

The train moved forward.

The tourists felt the fear of being trapped.

One of the intimidating men stood up in the enclosed subway car and began to proclaim,

“Have you ever thought about what happens when you DIE?”

That final word was drawn out for effect as he made eye contact with every passenger.

The tourists were now convinced they wouldn’t live to their next destination. Frozen in fear, they continued to listen to the man in charge.

If you were to die today and stand before the gates of heaven, and asked Jesus asks you “Why should I let you in. . .” Are you prepared to answer?

Are you prepared to step into eternity?

The tourists couldn’t care less – they just wanted out of the car. Their sense of fear was escalating.

Eventually, the open-air preacher finished condemning people to hell, and then passed the hat for an offering.

The tourists felt somewhat relieved they were not going to die at the hands of these 6 men. They figured out he was a street preacher.

But the street preacher lost them from square one.

Needless to say, the tourists didn’t give a dime, and they still left the subway car at the next stop.

The stories of Andrew and Phillip, and the experiences of other people I have known, have always led me to wonder exactly what it is that allows or enables people to share their faith with others so freely and so immediately after their conversions.

It seems clear that a believers’ early communication then and now is about a personal encounter and experience with Christ, not really a doctrine or dogma.

Why?

It certainly is because the Holy Spirit leads and moves people, and the Spirit’s role cannot and will not be minimized.

But is there also some God-given something in people the Holy Spirit works with that enables them to be early and effective witnesses, even without special training?

I believe there is.

My study and experience have led me to this conclusion.

Personality is the Human Component

More than anything else, personality is the human component involved in effective evangelism.

By personality, I mean much more than the traditional dichotomy of extrovert vs. introvert, which pits three-fourths of population against the other fourth, respectively.

Extroverts and introverts can be found in varying degrees in any of the personality styles.

By personality I mean God’s inherent wiring as to how people generally engage and interact with the world.

People seem to instinctively know this even if they have different ways of expressing it.

A recent informal poll found only 8 to 10 percent of Christians regularly share Christ with others.

8.3% – Haven’t found a way to share that fits personal style (In other words, it’s not comfortable or natural.)

Though the last response names “personality” specifically, personality seems to be behind the other responses; people are really saying they haven’t found a way to do evangelism naturally – as a part of how they are “wired.”

Because evangelism has become associated with something unnatural or forced, it feels “bad.”

I never understood why sharing the something so good makes so many feel so bad until I realized most people are doing evangelism in a way contrary to the way God made them.

We are called to do evangelism out of “grace, not guilt. It can be enjoyable, not just an endurable experience.”

Scriptural Examples of Personality Influences

I began searching the inspired pages for how Scripture views and values evangelism.

While contemporary examples are helpful, they cannot replace New Testament examples.

What I began to see was evidence that we all have this “personality thing” and it influences how we share Christ with others.

Paul.

One of the most striking examples of Spirit-used personality is in the Book of Acts where we read about Saul, whom we come to know later by his Greek name Paul.

Examining some of Paul’s story will give us a glimpse of how the Spirit works with personality, not only to find faith (Evangelism) but to mature in it as well (Discipleship), but that’s content for another book at another time.

Paul was, from Scripture’s earliest references, a passionate persecutor of those who held the new Christian faith. He was present at the martyrdom of Stephen and, though only watching over the outer garments (coats) of those who stoned Stephen, he was guilty by association.

At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him [Stephen], dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul (Acts 7:57-58 NIV).

Paul’s passion finds further expression as he traveled north to Damascus to, in his words, “persecute the church of God” (1Corinthians 15:9) and “try to destroy it” (Galatians 1:13).

It is clear that for Paul, this was more than completing a job task.

He took his responsibility personally.

Personality is very personal. For each of us, it is unique. It defines who we are and directs how we interact with others.

And yet it was en route to Damascus to carry out this persecution that Paul had a life-transforming encounter with Jesus Christ.

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem.

As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. ” Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do” (Acts 9:1-5 NIV).

The record goes on to tell us that after only three days, Paul walked south on the same road, but he was changed from Christianity’s greatest persecutor or Christianity’s greatest promoter!

Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 9:19-22 NIV)

What strikes me about Paul’s story is this: it was only three days between the time he was an enemy of Christ and when he became a first-class friend of Christ.

More striking is Paul attended no online training program, no school of evangelism, no workshop or seminar.

What did God’s Spirit tap in to Paul to move him out to promote that which he passionately and intensely had persecuted days before?

God used Paul’s inherent assertive personality.

Surrendering his entire life to the Spirit, personality included, was a part of his transformation. With the same vigor, the same personality, Paul promoted the very thing he tried to destroy.

Paul’s conversion was evidence of the Spirit’s working in his heart.

Paul shared the Gospel using his personality as he surrendered himself to the Holy Spirit.

Speakers and Doers

This was just one example in Scripture. I wondered if there were other kinds of evidence for how the Spirit views or uses personalities, so I searched Scriptures further.

This is what I found:

Whoever speaks, does so using the words God provides, and whoever serves, does so using the strength God provides, so that in all these things, God might be acknowledged” (I Peter 4:11 NIV, italics mine).

This verse indicates everyone in the world fits into two broad groups:

those who naturally engage the world by what they say and

those who naturally engage the world by what they do.

The first group uses words (verbal or written) and emphasizes the head.

The second group uses works and emphasizes the hands.

There are three styles I believe under the “Words” and three styles under the “Works” with a couple substyles under a few.

These two groups describe how we all are generally wired as God created us.

Some are predominately doers

Looking further in Scriptures, 1 Peter 3:11 gives additional insight into the styles of presence: “…won, without a word, by their conduct” (NIV).

Here, it is not what is said, but what is done that can win people over.

People who are basically “doing type people” get their hearts and hands dirty in their evangelistic efforts.

But just so there is no misunderstanding: words also have a vital place.

1 Peter 3:15 reminds us “we should be ready always to give the reason for the hope that is within us” (NIV).

This verse assumes our lives will cause people to want to know “why” – and we need to be ready with words to explain because they will initiate the conversation and ask the questions.

It must also be understood here that evangelism is not about convicting, convincing, or converting the non-Christian.

That is the work of God through the activity of the Holy Spirit in a person’s heart.

Evangelism is about introducing people to Christ through persuasive presentation, using both speech (lips) and actions (life) to share the Good News.

Presentation only appeals to a need already present in a person or that can be perceived during the encounter.

Thus, evangelism is really about conversing with the person in such a way that communicates the Gospel.

Again, words and works are the two basic ways we can evangelize.

God wired us with one or the other of these broad based personality categories. .

Though I have been touting this dichotomy for years, the most concise descriptors I’ve read that contrast between words and works are presented in Irresistible Evangelism.

Below are several pairings, representing two sides of a continuum; word or proclamation styles are on the left and works or presence styles are on the right.

Monologue … Dialogue

Presentations … Conversations

Our language … Their language

Count (quantity of) conversions …Count (quality of) conversations

Front door approaches … Back door approaches

Fishing from the bank … Swimming with the fish

Scripted … Spontaneous

Winning … Nudging

Gospel presentations … Gospel experiences

To hear more about this, check out Jeff’s book, Got Style? Personality-Based Evangelism at www.JudsonPress.com or directly from Amazon.com. It is turning traditional evangelism on its head.

Dr. Jeffrey A. Johnson

National Coordinator of Evangelism and New Church Planting for National Ministries

In this Evangelismcoach podcast episode, I talk with Jeffrey Johnson about every evangelism style has a place in the ministry of evangelism.

The styles (with one of the characteristics of each style) are:

assertive (confident)

analytical(logical)

story-telling (engaging)

relational (conversational)

invitational (hospitable)

incarnational (compassionate)

In 6 chapters of Got Style? Personality Based Evangelism, Johnson maps out a biblical example of each style, and speaks of strengths and weaknesses of each. This goes way beyond the “this is the best or only way of evangelism” most books focus on.

We’ll be talking about how personal evangelism fits into the local church. The big problem that we see with most evangelism training is that it is divorced from connecting people to the local church. How can we help the church support the work of evangelism?